Sunday, January 4, 2015

Introducing the author, Ann Miller Woodford

Ann Miller Woodford was born and raised in
Andrews, North Carolina. She attended the one-room, one-teacher, Andrews Colored/Negro
Elementary School through 8th grade. Due to segregation in Andrews, she
enrolled in a girls boarding school, Allen
High School in Asheville, North Carolina. There she was a member of the
National Honor Society and graduated with honors in 1965. Ann graduated cum laude in 1969,
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio where she
was a member of Mortar Board honor society.She is currently working on a Master of Arts Degree from Western
Carolina University in Cullowhee, North
Carolina and working for an AA Degree in Business from Tri-County Community College in Murphy, North Carolina. She was
the first African American to work in an office and the first to teach (art) in
the Cherokee County Schools. Her home church is Mt. Zion Baptist Church in
Andrews where she serves as Sunday School Treasurer and Youth Director.

Ann is the Founder of One Dozen Who Care, Inc. (ODWC). The African-American, women-led 501(c)3
community development corporation (CDC) has a vision to create leadership capacity and build
community unity in far western North Carolina through training, supporting
community, collaborating with other community groups, and organizing economic
development, social, cultural and educational activities. For 12 years, Ann was Executive Director of
ODWC, the first of its kind in far western North Carolina. She is also the Founder of Chautauqua
AVE! (Andrews Valley Experience!), a festival held
each spring and fall in Andrews that features local and national speakers. Before
founding ODWC, while serving as Executive Director at the Andrews Chamber of Commerce, Ann was honored with
the Rural Leader of the Year Award from the North Carolina Rural Economic Development
Center in Raleigh. In 2008, she received the honor of the Z. Smith Reynolds
Sabbatical and the coveted ODWC Emma Cline Moore Award for Community Service.

She is a professional fine artist who has
traveled extensively. As an artist/designer, she has created works of art and crafts that
have been marketed locally, nationally, and internationally. In the 1980s she
partnered with the actress, Esther Rolle who played
"Florida Evans" on the TV
series "Good Times. Their
company, E & A Global Enterprises in Los Angeles, California marketed Ann’s
artworks, Annie and Charlie Ragg® dolls and African American Heritage playing
cards.

Ann credits her high school English
teacher, Betty Sue Smith with her writing ability. This book comes from her
desire to record the lives of the African American people who labored under very difficult
conditions to make it possible for her and so many more to have enjoyed
all the unique and exciting experiences of life.

This blog is intended to help Ann gather more information about the very special people who blazed a trail for those who followed them as they founded churches and built communities in far western North Carolina.

6 comments:

My apologies to you if I do not respond in a timely manner. My priority at this time is to publish the book When All God's Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina.

We have used my book When All God’s Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina to form a partnership for our new project of the same name. Using Black church music as the narrator, this project focuses on the musical traditions of the African American communities of far western North Carolina, as manifested in churches, schools, and workplaces.I am very pleased to be a guest curator for a traveling exhibit, as I work in partnership with Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center and Director, Pam Meister with Peter Koch. WCU public history students and Andy Denson will be involved in the exhibit development process, providing them with a real-life engaged learning experience. The exhibit will open at the Mountain Heritage Center in February 2017, then tour to community venues throughout far western North Carolina. The project will also include musical heritage events in three communities:• Sylva, North Carolina, a Black History Month event hosted by the Waynesville Missionary Baptist Association at Scotts Creek Liberty Baptist Church; Sunday, February 19, 2017. • Murphy, North Carolina, hosted by the Texana Community Development Center (the day before the annual Texana Homecoming that is held at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church) and the Murphy Arts Center in Cherokee County; Saturday, July 22. 2017.• Waynesville, North Carolina, hosted by the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center and Jones Temple AME Zion Church; October 7, 2017.The events, held on Saturday or Sunday afternoons between 2 - 6:30 pm, will feature programs of traditional music by four or five African-American gospel groups, community/attendees singing, and dinners-on-the-ground. Each event will be documented by video and sound recording, and still photography by audience members for use in a future documentary film.

We have formed a great partnership with WCU in Cullowhee, Texana Community Development Center in Murphy, Liberty Baptist Church and the Waynesville Missionary Baptist Church in Sylva, and the Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville.

I will also travel to eight schools or community venues in western North Carolina with a small portable version of the exhibits to present educational programs exploring the exhibit’s topics and themes. All project components will be free and open to the public due to grants from the NC Humanities Council and the Cherokee County Arts Council.

About Me

I have one living sister, Nina Karen Miller Moses who lives in California with her daughter, Nikisha Ann Moses. My younger sister Mary Alice Miller Worthy passed away in 1991. Her son Seane Worthy and his wife, Amanda Adcock Worthy, live in South Carolina with their daughter, Mary Addison - called "Addie" and their son, Miller.

I am the Founder and former Executive Director (12 years) of a non-profit Community Development Corporation (CDC) called One Dozen Who Care, Inc. (ODWC).

For seven years, I have researched, photographed and written about the Black history in my mountain region for a book called,
When All God's Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina. This book is created as part of an ODWC program that started in 1998. After the book is published, we plan to develop a film and CD of our Gospel and spiritual singing.

This project is intended to tear down walls that divide people in our region and build up relationships between the race groups, religions and youth with our elders.